LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: At least 12 people, including six members of a family, were killed and scores of others injured in separate traffic mishaps due to dense fog in various areas of Punjab.
According to a private TV news channel, six people of a family were killed when their car plunged into a canal on Shujaabad Road near Multan due to dense fog. The dead bodies were pulled out immediately after the rescue agencies reached the site.
In another incident, a tractor-trolley hit a motorcycle in Vehari, leaving two persons dead on the spot. Two brothers were crushed to death by a dumper on Sargodha Road near Sillanwali, while four passengers were injured in a collision between a bus and a tractor-trolley in Narowal.
The Met Office has predicted rain-thunderstorm with snowfall over hills at isolated places in Malakand, Hazara divisions, upper FATA, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
According to Met Office, cold and dry weather is expected elsewhere in the country. Dense foggy conditions are likely to prevail over plain areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and upper Sindh, it said.
Meanwhile, Lowari tunnel has been closed for traffic due to heavy snowfall, Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) spokesman Latifur Rehman confirmed.
The largest district Chitral is cut-off from the rest of the country, however, people can go to and from Chitral through Lowari tunnel on Friday from 7am in the morning to 7pm in the evening, he added.
He said that around 30 passenger vehicles, carrying women and children, were struck due to heavy snowfall and a request was made to the tunnel authorities to let the vehicles pass.
Similarly roads were blocked in Shangla District and the district administration had started removing snow from roads, he said.
The spokesman also cautioned the people not to use the roads leading to Chitral as it might put human lives in danger. He said the tunnel would be opened on Friday.
